


Captain Davenport

by wonderlandroundthree (TomKipling)



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Davenport Needs a Hug, Episode: e060-066 The Stolen Century Parts 1-7, Gen, I Can't Believe That's Not Already A Tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-06
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-26 08:55:35
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20927537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TomKipling/pseuds/wonderlandroundthree
Summary: Davenport excuses himself quickly after the memorial, the second memorial in as many months, and retires to his quarters. He sits at his desk and rests his head in his hands, elbows resting on a mess of half-finished paperwork.Davenport has never taken a break in his life, and it's starting to take a toll.





	Captain Davenport

**Author's Note:**

> Content Warnings: death but they get better (the usual stolen century deal), implied suicide by recklessness. 
> 
> I posted this on mobile, so if there's any formatting/autocorrect issues please let me know so I can fix them.

Captain Davenport comes from a long line of leaders, scientists, and innovators. It's no surprise he rose through the ranks so quickly. He is, of course, also incredibly talented in his own right, but when everyone in your family has a title ahead of their name, the expectations are high.

Every day of the first two cycles (though they don’t call them that yet), Captain Davenport wears his uniform. With the exception of his, very scarce and often ignored, mandatory days off, on which he wears a pressed button-down shirt and slacks. It becomes a game amongst some of the crew to try and catch him out of dress code. The closest they get is the time Magnus accidentally starts a fire while making a 3AM snack, and Davenport rushes out of his quarters wearing his IPRE-issue pyjamas, his name embroidered above the logo on the breast pocket. 

...

Captain Davenport never falters. He takes every abnormality in stride, and always maintains a professional disposition.

This is why he was recommended for the role of captain on such a monumental expedition.

This begins to fall apart during the third cycle. 

...

The third cycle is hard on all of them. The plane is sparsely populated and constantly battered by intense and illogical storms. They are forced to keep the Starblaster idling above the clouds more often than not, purely because the weather is so unpredictable that there’s no way to prepare for it. Searching for the Light is both physically and mentally taxing, and results in more injuries than the previous two cycles combined.

They lose Lup in the fourth month.

After that, Taako becomes withdrawn, throwing himself headfirst into his work and volunteering himself for any and all away missions. He takes risks, more risks than he’s asked to and more risks than are necessary.

They lose Taako in the fifth month. 

...

Davenport excuses himself quickly after the memorial, the second memorial in as many months, and retires to his quarters. He sits at his desk and rests his head in his hands, elbows resting on a mess of half-finished paperwork. 

He doesn’t know how much time passes before there is a knock at his door. He blinks a couple of times and clears his throat before saying, “enter.”

The door slides open and Merle steps into the room holding a tea tray. Ignoring the paperwork and other important items on the desk, he puts the tray down and pours two cups of tea, adding one sugar to the first and offering it to Davenport before adding two sugars to his own. 

“How’re you holding up?” Merle asks. 

Davenport can’t help but laugh. It’s the kind of dry, humourless laugh that’s really more of a sharp exhale accompanied by a half-smile half-grimace. “Perfectly fine, Merle.”

“That’s a lie, and we both know it.”

“You got me there.” Davenport takes a sip of his tea. It’s a strong Fantasy Irish Breakfast blend, the kind he brought from home that Merle has been replicating with his Create Food and Water spell for the last two years.

“You know, you’re allowed to have bad days, same as everyone else is. And I know that losing Taako the way we did hit you pretty hard-”

“You can’t blame him,” Davenport interrupts. 

“I know,” Merle says, “but you can’t blame yourself either. You spend so much time looking after the crew, you need to take a break. Self-care and all that.” 

“I don’t think we can afford that, Merle.” Davenport pauses, thinking for a moment. “I can’t just abandon my post because I want an extra day off. This isn’t like back home, I can’t just hand my duties off to someone else for a couple of weeks.”

“I get the feeling you didn’t take much time off back home, either,” Merle says. He takes a sip of his own tea before continuing. “As the ship’s medic, I am ordering you to take the rest of the week off.”

“Merle, you can’t-”

“Yes I can, it’s written in the manual. Standard procedure”

Davenport sighs. He’s not wrong. 

“Okay. I will take the next -” he glances at the calendar on his wall, “- four days off. Assuming that nothing of note happens during those four days.”

Merle smiles, finishes his tea, and turns to leave. Before he does so, he turns back to Davenport and says, “If I catch you doing paperwork, I’ll make it five days off.”

He slides the door closed behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Kudos and comments are always appreciated <3
> 
> This has been sitting in my google drive for months because it's technically a sequel to another fic that I haven't finished yet (focusing on the twins), so I'll be posting a prequel of sorts some time soon. 
> 
> You can also find me on Tumblr at wonderlandroundthree


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